Terrible Journeys-1

1.       Diwali 2007 in general class trip from Coimbatore to Mangalore:

I was working in Coimbatore and my usual practice during holidays to go to Mangalore. But this Diwali was never planned. I was thinking to stay back in Coimbatore. But 3 days of holidays gave me a temptation to go to Mangalore. But it was too late to get a berth in the train. Train was an easy option to reach home. I took risk and decided to go by general class and prepared myself for a terrible journey.

First of all, there was no place to get into the train for almost 3 minutes after the train stopped in Coimbatore Junction. I had a bag behind me and overall i was finding it difficult to fight against the crowds pushing and pulling me. I succeeded to put my one foot on the step and made enough fight to land second one too just in time and the train started moving.

Now i was sure that i will reach Mangalore and i was sure that no seat will be available throughout my 9 hours journey. Palakkad is about one hour from Coimbatore. I was standing somehow and hoping that many people will get out the train at the pallakkad junction. My hope was true, there were 5-8 people got out of train. But my relief was there only for 2 seconds as i saw a small mob of 10 people are trying to get into the train at the same time. I was still in the passage, standing with great difficulty, now decided to push myself in the main passage hoping for a better situation. I was prepared to stand till the morning, but wanted to stand without any difficulty.

The train moved from Palakkad junction towards Calicut. I saw number of people sitting on the floor obstructing the main passage.I was thinking ‘ why i cannot also follow the same thing’. I searched for the place to land myself, removed my small towel spreading across the place where i am going to sit and slowly sat.

A great relief. My rest of the journey was with seeing people around and with breaking sleeps. The train arrived on time at 04:30 to Mangalore.

At the end i was happy reach Mangalore ‘somehow’

Since i was coming to Mangalore more often, sometimes every week if necessary, i chose this option as i was spending half of the money from sleeper class and learned some techniques to manage to get a seat.

2.       Bus trip from Coimbatore to Mangalore Via Mysore

It was in  2010 and i got bored going by train to Mangalore. I decided one day to go by bus Via Mysore. I went couple of times before but i had good planning  then. In this case  the decision to go to Mangalore took place around 4 PM in the  evening.I don’t remember exactly why i have decided.

I took bus from Gandipuram bus stand in Coimbatore at 7 PM and moved towards Mysore. Let me tell you one thing here. Travelling through the satyamangalam Ghat sections with steep curves and hair pin bends is a great experience

The bus takes 6 hours to reach Mysore and the time was 1 AM in the morning. There were no deluxe and premium buses available at this time. I had to make one more cut journey. I got a  bus  moving towards Madikeri and had no other option but to get into. The bus was full even though it  was just after midnight. I stood for 3 hours for my journey to Madikeri.When i was getting down, i came to know that the same bus is going up to Sullya. I took additional ticket and the bus moved through the Ghat sections.

Now my stomach started working and  i started omitting. I stopped the bus for 2 times  for completing the omission properly. I was relaxed by the time i reached Sullya. There was another government bus ready at Sullya bus stand to go to Puttur and  again no choice to but to get into yet another cut journey ( cut journey is my terminology ).

At puttur, there was a bus to go to Mangalore, but i opted for B C road as i can reach Kaikamba from B C road. Getting down at B C road, i  made a big mistake in my decision to go to Kaikamba via Kuppepadav. This was indirect way to go to Kaikamba. The usual bus travel time is 40 minutes where as this Bus took 1.5 hours from B C road to reach Kaikamba.i was not aware about this also never asked  the conductor.

 At last i got down at 09 35 Am at Kaikamba and my brother came to pick me up.